Macro and Micro - Tracking Multiple Actions from a Single Click

Modified on: Wed, 10 Jun, 2015 at 10:38 AM

What are Macro and Micro Events?

Events are actions that occur during a customer's journey. Macro and Micro Events are created and live at the Brand Level and can be activated or deactivated at the Site Level per each Site that utilizes them.

Macro and Micro Events can be a paid or non paid action

Macro and Micro Events can be enabled or disabled from displaying/reporting in the Affiliate Portal

Macro and Micro Events do not need to occur in a linear order. Macro and Micro Events are a great way to track multiple steps or actions within a funnel, free trials, tweets, likes, shares, in-app purchases, paid subscriptions, leads and multiple sales.

Where do I enable Macro and Micro Events?

Click on the Setup Main Tab > Tracking Settings Sub Tab. Under the General Settings of the Tracking Settings Sub Tab - check the "Enable Events" check box, then click the "Save" button located at the bottom of the page.

Macro vs. Micro - What's the difference?

Macro Events: A Macro Event is considered a user action that is highly meaningful for your business strategy and directly tied to your KPI's. A sales transaction for example.

When a visitor to your website or a website you are promoting takes an action to become a registered or paying customer, the CAKE pixel you place on that page will fire, letting CAKE know a Macro event took place. CAKE allows for duplicate Macro Events for a particular Site/Offer. For example you want to track a user registration and a subsequent shopping cart purchase, these could both be considered Macro Events.

Micro Events: A Micro Event is a smaller action that you may want to track throughout a customer journey such as buying credits, Facebook likes or answering certain survey questions throughout the site. Micro Events may happen many times over, whereas Macro Events only happen maybe a couple times.

*Events require the ‘e’ parameter to be passed in the browser pixel and additionally, both the 'e' parameter and the Request ID (CAKE integer) is required in a server post.

*Default Macro Event: An asterisk located to the left of a Macro Event name (*) identifies it as the default Macro Event. You can change your default Event by clicking on a different Event Name and choosing “Set as Default.” Macro Events are the only type of Events that can be set as a "default." The Price Format of the Default Macro is controlled at the Site Level and the Price Paid is controlled at the Campaign Level.

Where do I add Macro and Micro Events?

Macro and Micro Events are created and stored at the Brand Level so that you can easily apply them to multiple Sites without having to recreate each one. Macro and Micro Events can be used for 3rd Party Sites, Hosted Sites and Host-n-Post Sites.

By default the "Conversion/Install" Macro Event will always show as the main conversion for a Site. This is what the general settings and rules of the Site will use for the conversion. You can change the "Default Conversion/Install" Macro by creating additional Macro Events and selecting "Default" on the newly created Macro. Only Macros can be selected as a default option. Micro Events are not an option for a "Default Conversion/Install" setting.

Add new Macro/Micro Events by clicking on the "Add" button

Event ID: Unique ID per Macro &/or Micro created within your CAKE instance. *The ID will be assigned once the Macro &/or Micro Event has been created and saved.

Name: The name value that will show in the Affiliate Portal if the "Portal" check box has been enabled. Max. Characters = 50 (to limit length in reporting)

Event Type: Macro or Micro

Price Format: Cost per Event (CPE) or Revshare

Active: The Macro &/or Micro Event by default is set to active on the Brand Level to ensure that the Macro &/or Micro Event is available on all Site Levels. If this is edited after the Macro &/or Micro Event has been created or is turned off during creation, the Macro &/or Micro Event not be displayed on the Events Tab of all Site Cards.

Allow Duplicate: Enabling "Allow Duplicate" turns deduping off for the specified Macro/Micro Event and allow multiple conversions to track for this Macro/Micro Event.

Transaction ID Deduplication: When enabled, CAKE will only allow one unique Transaction ID per Macro/Micro Event ID. The choices for Transaction ID Deduplication are: Disabled, by Advertiser or by Site.

Payout: The payout entered on the Brand Level will be used as a default payout for all Sites where this specific Macro/Micro is set to "Active". *Note A payout can be overridden at the Site Level and Campaign Level.

Portal:Enabling "Portal" will display the Macro/Micro within the Affiliate Portal.

Active for All Sites: Enabling "Active for All Sites" will set the Macro/Micro to "active" for all Sites by default. *Note: This setting can be overridden on the Site Level. Macro/Micro's can be deactivated on the Site Level.

Fire Global Pixel: If enabled, the Global Brand Pixel will fire each time the Macro/Micro Pixel fires. *The Global Pixels check box within the Setup Main Tab > Tracking Settings will need to be enabled in order for this setting to be active.

Order Events

Macro and Micros do not need to occur in a specific order, however you may want to see the Macros and Micros in a specific order for reporting purposes. To change the order of the Macros and Micros, click on the "Order Events" button (which is located on the Brand Level > Events Tab). Don't forget to click the "Save" button!

Macros and Micros: Site Level

Once Macros and Micros have been created on the Brand Level, you can apply Macros and Micros to any Site that is tied to that Brand. All Sites for the Brand are located under the Sites Tab of the Brand Card.

On the Site Card, you can modify, activate or inactivate Macros and Micros. Default Macros can only be modified, activated or deactivated at the Brand Level.

Conversion/Install Tab:

There are two settings that can be modified on the Site Level for Macros and Micros - the "Active" check box and the Payout. Modifying either (or both) of these settings on the Site Level will override the settings on the Brand Level.

Caps:

You can assign Caps for Macro and Micro Events. Just as you would with Click and Conversion Caps, you can specify the following details:

Event Cap: This sets the maximum number of paid Macro &/or Micro Events this Site/Site Contract will accept in a given time period before a redirect of Macro &/or Micro Event Cap Behavior is applied.

Interval: When applied, this will set the duration a Macro &.or Micro Event Cap will last before getting reset. None, Daily, Weekly, Monthly and Custom. If "None" has been selected, traffic will continue to track for the Macro &/or Micro until the Cap Amount has been met. There is not a specific time period for the cap to be met and will not reset once the cap has been met. When you select the "Custom" interval, the Cap for the Macro &/or Micro will have a specific designated start date.

Redirect When Cap is Reached: When enabled, Site clicks will be redirected when the Macro &/or Micro Event Cap has been reached. By default, CAKE will not redirect traffic when an individual Macro &/or Micro Cap has been reached as there may be other Events or Conversions that still have allocation. However, if you choose, you can have CAKE redirect upon reaching an Macro &/or Micro Cap by checking this check box.

Event Cap Behavior: This settings allows you to customize how this Event will apply payment when the cap has been reached. This is just like the Conversion Cap Behavior Setting - defaulted to the Global Settings, this setting tells CAKE how to attribute Macro &/or Micro Conversions that result from clicks that occurred prior to the Macro &/or Micro Cap being reached. You can choose between 5 other options (Advertiser Payment, Affiliate Payment / Advertiser Payment, No Affiliate Payment / Ignore Conversion / No Advertiser Payment, Affiliate Payment / No Advertiser Payment, No Affiliate Payment) to override the default settings located within the Setup Tab > Tracking Settings Sub Tab.

Event Cap Alerts

There are also corresponding Event Cap Alerts as well, following the convention of existing Cap Alerts which can be found by clicking on the Setup Tab > Alerts Sub Tab.

Approaching Offer Event Cap

Approaching Campaign Event Cap

Reached Offer Event Cap

Reached Campaign Event Cap

How do I generate a pixel?

To generate a pixel - click on the "Pixel" button (which is located on the Home Sub Tab on the Site Card).

Step 1: The Site will populate in the pixel wizard for you. If you would like to generate a pixel for another Site, simply select the Site from the drop down. You can multi-select Macro &/or Micro Event pixels by holding down the command or control key while clicking on each Macro &/or Micro Event Name. When you click "Next", CAKE will generate all supported pixel formats. The 4 pixel formats that CAKE supports is: iFrame, Javascript, Image and Postback URL.

Step 2: Simply scroll down the list of pixels to retrieve all formats for all pixels. The test link for the Site is also located on the pixel wizard (located under the Postback URL pixel).

Macro and Micro Reporting

Macro and Micro reporting is located within the following reports (click on the "Edit View" icon located next to the export button to enable the Events column in reporting). You can also enable the drill down option for Macro and Micros. This setting is located within the "Edit View" icon > Drill Down Report box (middle option on the edit view wizard).

Channel

Site

Channel Attribution

Campaign

Traffic: (Daily drill down and Macro Events drill down)

Channels Main Tab

Stats Sub Tab

Reports: The types of reports that is available in CAKE for Advertisers